


beyond good and evil (not to be confused with the philosophy book)

by 10hr10minute



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Angels and Devils, Comedy, In quotation marks, M/M, a plethora of other idol cameos, eventually every seventeen member will have some role in the story, ngl though the meanie is not going to be super focus, will update the tags as it goes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-07 04:08:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11615544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/10hr10minute/pseuds/10hr10minute
Summary: KWON SOONYOUNG     (Angel, ex-carer of Small Animals, due for promotion to Archangel)LEE JIHOON     (Devil of True Blood, led astray many a good man esp fresh law graduates)HANSOL VERNON CHOI     (Chosen One, just wants to befriend the Cute Transfer Student)BOO SEUNGKWAN     (Cute Transfer Student)(au with angels and devils)





	1. dramatis personae

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- i mean, this isn't an update  
> \- i'm working on the actual chapter, sorry guys

**{Heavenly Powers}**

 

KWON SOONYOUNG     (Angel, ex-carer of Small Animals, due for promotion to Archangel)

HONG JISOO     (Dominion, The ones that regulate the duties of lower angels)

LEE SEOKMIN     (Heaven’s Silliest Angel)

LEE CHAN     (Angel with an L-plate stuck on his bum)

GOD     (Never actually shows up but is listed by virtue of always being around)

 

**{Hellish Fiends}**

 

LEE JIHOON     (Devil of True Blood, led astray many a good man esp fresh law graduates)

YOON JEONGHAN     (Fallen Angel, more of a plummet really, he doesn’t half-ass anything)

WEN JUNHUI     (Demon, one half of demonic duo When & How)

XU MINGHAO     (Demon, other half of demonic duo When & How)

 

**{Humans}**

 

HANSOL VERNON CHOI     (Chosen One, just wants to befriend the Cute Transfer Student)

BOO SEUNGKWAN     (Cute Transfer Student)

CHOI FAMILY

  * PAPA     (Father)
  * MAMA     (Mother)
  * SOFIA     (Little sister)



KIM MINGYU     (A jock)

JEON WONWOO     (A nerd)

CHOI FAMILY II

  * UNCLE
  * CHOI “HELL’S ANGEL” SEUNGCHEOL     (Member of a biker gang)



PRISTIN 98 LINE: YEBIN, EUNWOO, JIEQIONG     (Sam, Clover, and Alex)


	2. lights, camera,

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me: wow, i don't like handling multichaptered fics  
> also me: 1/?
> 
> (yo, there's like some christian heebeejeebees going on, just a head's up)

According to all legends/ prophecies/ readings divined from oracles/ heavenly messages inscribed into chicken bones, every thousand years* a special child was born. 

*Or ten thousand, or three decades, they were wildly inconsistent with the general frequency of things due, presumably, to the nature of human error. 

This child would have a great influence on the goodness or badness in the world. A Minister to be renowned for their upstanding qualities and sense of justice. On the other hand, an underground drug lord, stained with sin, to go down in history as a great monster. Whichever side the child fell towards, the point was that it was an important goal for both the powers above and under. All that said, this child was not to be confused with the Antichrist. That was more of a one off thing, Armageddon and Rapture, all or nothing, and then the World ended. So, no, these children were less severe. Sort of like a test-dummy Antichrist, one could suppose. A trial run. There was generally less chaos and more surviving involved. The impact hardly global. 

But still important, of course. 

And every time such an event rolled around, both sides sent down their best generals to be with the child. Watch over their growth, keep them from (too much) harm, prod them in the preferred direction a little. It was an agreement that they’d settled on millenniums past, with Heaven being ever equitable, while Hell was more begrudgingly accepting. 

So there. There’s the general gist of the backstory. Now on to the setting. 

The Child this time around was being born to a nice interracial couple, father Korean and mother American. The time, quite early into the year. Where the New Year resolutions were not yet broken but definitely cracking, and the flowers have yet to come into bloom. 

It was a nice, cozy place in South Korea, the Father’s hometown. A small province where the population generally minded their own business but could be considered friendly. Where the sun shone more warm than hot throughout the year, and the whole West perimeter was a shore facing the vast blue of the sea. Not a lot of nature, but what they did have was all lush with the colours of vitality. The area was just a smidgen behind the times, unlike the capital of Seoul which was far ahead in the future, but there was a relatively trendy mall, and plenty of art museums, and a reputable school for the children. 

Really, it was a good choice to settle down in. 

And the couple were currently locked away in the white and green of the hospital, delivery room, to be precise. 

“Take a deep breath, ma’am.” Said the nurse, holding equipment that looked strangely sinister for childbirth. Then again, all medical equipment looked at least slightly sinister, like it was some kind of unspoken prerequisite. 

“You’re doing great, honey.” Said the husband. He let his wife squeeze his hand and pointedly tried not to stare southward, where it was a bit bloody and strange and he was as mortified as he was curious. 

“Okay on three,” Said the doctor. “Heave, heave, ho. Heave, heave, ho.” 

“Arghhhhhhhhh!” Went the woman. And several times over until she exhaled with a great shudder, a signalling of a change of state. The child was born. All sticky and red, as newborns always were. 

“Oh, ew.” Said the angel. Blond, pristine wings properly brushed for the occasion, glowing halo. He winced. 

“Heh.” Said the devil. Brunette, tiny little red horns, accompanying tail complete with the red arrow at the tip. He snickered. 

They turned to each other then, painfully awkward. 

What did one say to a mortal, or rather immortal, enemy? Because surely they were both here to accomplish different agendas. Very different agendas. Quite literally on two ends of the scale agendas. Yet, they were going to be in constant company for the next sixteen years minimum, until the Reckoning, so it would stand to reason that some sort of amiability was necessary. 

Their silence dragged a tick too long. 

Finally, Soonyoung cleared his throat, every fiber of his being screaming to be friendly. “Hello, nice to meet you, my name’s Kwon Soonyoung!” He extended a hand by force of habit. 

“The displeasure’s all mine.” Jihoon groaned. “Lee Jihoon. Put your hand away.” 

Soonyoung looked at his hand as if he hadn’t noticed he had it out. Then he turned a little pink, and sheepishly brought it back to himself. 

“Nice weather we’re having, eh?” 

“Unfortunately.” 

“Right…” Soonyoung trailed off. 

Jihoon cast a glance at the other party, who was fiddling his fingers, being too jittery, and not looking at the nurse cleaning up. He suddenly felt like he had some upper hand. 

“Ain’t never seen a childbirth before, huh?” He didn’t wait for Soonyoung’s answer. “Not as pretty as you thought?” 

It was mockery. Soonyoung huffed. “I saw the birth of Christ.” Had it on VHS too, he was tempted to add if he were inclined to give in to temptation. 

“Doesn’t count. He was divine, came out without a fuss. Practically walked out of his mother’s womb.” 

“He was born man.” Soonyoung pointed out. 

“But it didn’t look like this.” Jihoon gestured. 

He got Soonyoung there. The angel drew back, he had the expression that followed a whimper, although he didn’t make the sound. “Well.. it’s just… unexpectedly… _squicky._ ” 

Jihoon blinked. _‘Squicky?’_ Well that was a first. He’d never heard anyone actually say that before. Seen it in print, sure, but aloud? It was quite a cute word, and it seemed to suit Soonyoung. Certainly not in the meaning, but the cuteness, like it was something an angel would say, pure and inoffensive. He laughed. 

Naturally, Soonyoung frowned in response. Jihoon paid him no mind, he was feeling confident, as if he’d already earned one point in this long battle. The first point no less. The more militarily significant point by account of being the first. 

“Well,” he relaxed, “looking forward to working around you, angel.”

He was being sarcastic, slurred the ‘angel’ all derogatory, punctuated with a smirk. 

But Soonyoung beamed at him. “Likewise.” He cheered with too much genuine enthusiasm that Jihoon had to look away. 

Earthquakes rocked the land somewhere far. Great beams of light shone down through the clouds. 

And so the stage was set. 

And… **action!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- howdy y'all
> 
> \- this spur of the moment fic was inspired by the book i'm currently reading. Good Omens. and i would recommend it.  
> \--- anyway, do let me know if there's any interest because i don't quite know if i want to go all in with it yet  
> \--- that said, i hope you did enjoy the very brief read


	3. four letter word for madness, bliss, misery, and peace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- i really don't know what i'm doing

The general, very cliche makeup of movies were as follows. In the beginning, an intense action scene or a spectacular sequence that just drew, demanded, attention. Then the title screen came up, you go oooooh it’s starting. Then the story began proper, and all that hype just sort of evaporated, as the audience was plunked into the same starting line as the protagonist, climbing together up along the hill known as Act I and II Of The Three Act Story Structure. Before getting to the good part, they call it the climax in writing terms, and it’s jumping off the Act III Cliff in a spiral of adrenaline and fizzle, fizzle the movie ended. 

Yeah well, the gathering of holy and unholy powers was the hook. All that flashy natural disasters and relief aids.

Vernon’s birth was the title screen.

And his formative years were the driest start to any flick imaginable. There was not much any angel or devil could do to the spirit when the mind lacked conscience. It was like teaching values to a wall, or tempting a sack of potatoes to embrace hedonism.

In other words, futile.

To Jihoon’s delight, and Soonyoung’s exasperation, babies tended to naturally be more on the destructive end of the spectrum.

“Surely, this does not count.” Soonyoung would say, as Vernon threw his spoon off the table, impervious to the angel’s dismay.

“Counts to me.” Jihoon would shrug.

“Does not.”

“Does to.”

Vernon threw his bowl, squawking with delight.

Jihoon looked at the split bits of porridge with unbridled glee. Soonyoung could not, for the life of him, understand their joy and resigned himself to sulking in a corner. There was not much helping it until Vernon grew older. Jihoon came around to gloat. For the first time in his long, immortal life, he thought about the passage of Time and wished it went faster.

Interestingly, the phases of early development could be sorted into formula milk categories. There might be a hypothesis to be had there.

First, there was ‘2: For Babies above six months’.

At this time, Vernon could hardly be made to stay in one place for too long. When he was sleeping, he wanted to wake. When he was awake, he wanted to move. When he was moving, he wanted to stay.

It was all very complicated business.

Which wasn’t helped by how his cries sounded the same no matter what it was he called for. For the record it was ‘wahhhhhh’ for hunger, and ‘wehhhhh’ for being hugged too tightly, though really who could be blamed for not knowing.

Vernon approached the world with immense curiosity and knew only one method to satiate said curiosity: by engaging all his senses. He’d eye the strange looking object (Sight), pick it up (Touch), sniff at it (Smell), shook it by his ear (Sound), and finally pop it into his mouth (Taste).

Usually at this point, his mother would fly into the picture, yelling, “spit it out this instant!”

He learnt to control his limbs, got good enough to crawl, which meant he was capable of messing up two different areas in one day. Three, if he were feeling particularly joyous. Soonyoung swore he nearly had an aneurysm. His reports during this time went something like this:

 

31/03/XXXX Anno Domini

Soonyoung here.

Nothing significant happened today.

I shall continue to mo- ah not again! Stop that. Oh dear. Jihoon, give me back my papers- nitor the situation.

Best Regards

 

Then came ‘3: For Children aged 1-3’.

By now, Vernon was able to associate meaning to sounds. Things like ‘no’, and ‘yes’, and ‘who’s a wittle-bwittle-baby-bear’, which he’d giggle at even though he couldn’t understand. He also started to make gurgling noises back.

His mother took this as a sign that he would soon be able to talk, so she got into a habit of repeating phrases that she wanted him to say before every meal.

And Soonyoung got into a habit of whispering nice words to him as well. “Mama.” “Papa.” “God.”

Jihoon was more inclined to try for words like ‘massacre’, ‘pathogens’, ‘death and physical mutilation’.

Ultimately, one afternoon Vernon wrinkled his little nose at the dinner table and said, “Ma…”

Everyone paused.

“Yes, honey, go on.” His mother encouraged, making motions with her hands. She had enough sense to put down the utensils and whip out her phone. One thing about motherhood, it really ingrained a sense of dependency for phones. Afterall, how was a mother to know when her child was going to do something picture worthy. (Also, they were great for looking up information on the spot, and making calls in cases of emergency)

“You can do it.” Soonyoung cheered, fists clenched and held in front of him.

“Ma-sir-ker.” Jihoon enunciated. “Ma. Sir. Ker.”

“Ah.” Vernon declared. He sniffled and nodded and blinked. “Ma..ma.”

“Yeah! Yeah good job! Say it again, ma-ma.”

“Mamummm. Masssssik. Mamma.”

“Gosh. I’m so proud of you!” She lifted the child out of his highchair to hug him tightly, snuggled their faces together as she laughed, and he laughed along just because.

Soonyoung turned expectantly to Jihoon, “he did it!”

Jihoon regarded the situation. “Yeah, congrats.” He didn’t really mean it, but he wasn’t fully sarcastic about it either. From the get go he had about a snowball’s chance in hell of winning this round so it wasn’t too much of a bummer.

“I wish I could hold him too.”

He heard Soonyoung say, a touch too sentimental. He snapped his attention to the angel who was still smiling brightly at the scene. At that moment, he had a bad feeling. Vernon’s mother was now using one hand to ring up her husband to share the good news. The bad feeling gnawed in his stomach and his senses stop working for a moment. Soonyoung turned to face him. Something bad was going to happen if he didn’t do something. But what could he do about a problem he couldn’t even recognise? “Honey, you won’t believe what just happened!” And wasn’t bad his goal? “Are you okay?” Soonyoung had a crease in his brow.

Jihoon wanted to touch his face.

If he were thinking, he wouldn’t have but as it stood he barely able to make sense of anything swimming in his head, so he reached out and his hand burned.

“Yeowch!” Soonyoung yelped, clutching his face, crumpling onto the floor.

Despite the searing pain in his own hand, Jihoon crouched down immediately. “Soonyoung, are you okay? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that!” The words pour out and his hands hovered awkwardly around the other’s frame, once bitten twice shy, yet still there must be something he could do.

Soonyoung peeked out from his fingers. There was a patch of black where Jihoon’s hand had been.

“Soonyoung...”

“I’m okay.” He assured. Even though he was still holding onto his face, and his voice was so weak. “It’s okay.”

Jihoon looked down at his hand. There was a streak of white and it seared. And it could not offer any more help to the angel. “I really didn’t mean that.” He said once more.

“I believe you.”

Those words brought that funny feeling back into his gut and Jihoon cringed. Then he shuffled, being extra careful this time, he placed his knees gently by the angel’s side. With caution, he leant lower, draping himself over like a hug and stopping just shy of coming into contact. It looked normal, like two people comforting each other, but they didn’t touch. Between a thumb and index finger, he pinched at the fabric on the back of Soonyoung’s shirt, the other arm limp at the side. Both of Soonyoung’s palms still pressed into his face.

They said nothing.

Time chugged on to ‘4: For Children aged 3-6’.

Jihoon had a Problem ™, which took the form of slightly taller than him and ever chipper, Kwon Soonyoung.

At the age of three, Vernon’s parents sent him to nursery school. It was a first time for the boy to interact with new people, people his age. And also, the first proper competition between him and Soonyoung in guiding morality. No more throwing utensils nonsense.

So, he supposed, it was also the first time he learnt of just how much of a pain in the ass his rival could be.

When he’d been egging the boy on to tie his female classmate’s pigtails around the bus pole, Soonyoung had interfered enough such that he only gave it a tug.

And when Vernon found a 5 dollar note on the floor, Soonyoung had managed to convince him to return it to the adults.

(Although, to Jihoon’s credit, he successfully got the little boy to ‘borrow and never return’ an expensive looking mechanical pencil from his seatmate.)

Thing was, he expected a bit more assured winning but they were more or less balanced. A seesaw rocking up and down. He’d say the child was growing up to be fairly good with a mischievous side rather than properly good or evil.

A point that was frustrating him to no end.

Only Soonyoung, endless patience (remember, patience was a virtue), smiled on through the days. “Jihoon look at this, Jihoon look at that, Jihoon!” He called out every time.

One day something different happened. Vernon’s parents were having a second child, and Vernon was sent to live with his Aunt in the other part of town. Just for a few days. It was the first time the child was put to sleep in an unfamiliar environment, and without his parents, whose presence had become a part of the world to the child.

The toddler bawled and bawled, try as the poor lady might to make him feel better. Despite her best efforts and niceties, he continued to cry, eventually only falling asleep because he ran out of energy.

As she settled the infant into bed, a deep sigh from her chest and a crick in her back, Soonyoung and Jihoon stood over him. Soonyoung on the right, Jihoon on the left. Come to think of it, they were always like this. Soonyoung always on the right. Jihoon always on the left.

They looked at each other, then at Vernon, and they shrugged. They would not compete tonight. Jihoon didn’t have the heart. Soonyoung had too much.

A little into the night, Vernon stirred, his leg was kicking about in the air, and his face was scrunched up ready to cry. Soonyoung sat up straight, and then he made the decision, even if Vernon couldn’t see him, he could hear him, he always could. So he closed his eyes, rested a palm on the boy’s cheek, and sang.

Beautiful melody filled the room. His voice soft like feathers and very light, he sang.

 

_ Amazing grace. How sweet the sound _

_ That saved a wretch like me. _

_ I once was lost, but now am found; _

_ Was blind, but now I see. _

 

He slowly open his eyes then, and saw Jihoon from across the bed staring at him. Then he forgot the words. 

‘Twas… ‘Twas… What was it?

“’Twas grace.” Jihoon said. But when Soonyoung didn’t respond, he cleared his throat.

 

_ ’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, _

_ And grace my fears relieved; _

 

Soonyoung snapped back into reality. Jihoon sounded lovely, clear and pretty. 

 

_ How precious did that grace appear _

_ The hour I first believed. _

 

The last note of song hung in the air for some time. 

“Wow, you… sing really well.” Soonyoung said, a little dumbly.

Jihoon snorted.

“Really, wow, were you-” He stopped short. “No, nevermind.”

“Just spit it out.” Jihoon hissed.

“Were you born or did you…” He made a motion with his hand, lifted it then slowly descended.

“I didn’t fall.” Jihoon said, “You’re talking to a true blooded Devil.”

Soonyoung was mysteriously emboldened by all this.

“What did you use to do?” He asked. And in that funny house that was unfamiliar to the both of them, Jihoon told him of how he worked at a law firm, misguiding bright eyed youngsters, and Soonyoung recounted his job of looking after God’s animals. Then they asked each other, which one of us do you think will win? To which they both were obliged to pick their own sides, debating points that they knew were sort of up in the air.

The two of them currently weren’t enough, something else was needed. Something stronger and fiercer and more powerful and devastating.

(It was love. Cliched as hell, honest to God, love. It’s a love story.)

They wondered when it would be.

That was 10 years ago, before a plane left Jeju Island carrying with it a certain Boo Seungkwan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- osu!
> 
> \- soo i still don't know where this is going, but the plot bunny hasn't quite left me so here's a consecutive update  
> \--- i feel like the tone shifted  
> \--- seriously, lmk what y'all think of this particular one because i'm ???
> 
> \- thank you


	4. now who'd've ever thought that (oooh)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- i spent more time than i should trying to think of a chapter title but in the end it's two words and only kind of fitting
> 
> \- edit: i changed the chapter title and yes, it is high school musical

Supposedly Evil never slept and Justice was ever vigilant. That wasn’t exactly true. At the turn of the century, these widespread ideas of ‘labour welfare’ and ‘workplace rights’ and ‘boosting creativity at the office by installing slides’ were all the rage. Effectively, this meant that Soonyoung and Jihoon both had three days of mandatory, clear your mind, cleanse your soul, leave every thirteen years*.

* The odd numbers were due to the collaborative effort of Heaven’s Angel Resources Department and whichever random denizen Hell entrusted with the task. Things got very sensitive whenever affairs of the not quite Antichrist were concerned, they were at War, after all. It took a long arduous process spanning many months (they went through every method of random chance including, but not limited to, rolling dice, flipping coins, plucking petals off of flowers - at the angel’s insistence, they more counted the leaves blown down by the wind and had to constantly recount because the same wind kept messing up the positioning) before they finally came to the conclusion of the aforementioned numbers.

Which was the part of the story that we were currently at. Vernon, aged 13, in his first year of middle school.

It was a fairly normal morning thus far. Vernon had gotten up after snoozing the alarm precisely twice. He shuffled sleepily into the bathroom to wash up, then passed his sister’s room on the way to the kitchen. Here, he briefly contemplated between letting her have an extra portion of eggs that morning, or busting in to startle her.

Jihoon was in a particularly lazy mood. Upcoming holiday, probably. So Vernon gave his sister some extra eggs from his plate at the table, and she giggled in delight.

His mother commended him. His father made grunting noises while staring at the newspaper. He’d likely had no idea what was going on but made sound in response to sound to cast an illusion. It was as convincing as a magician who’d written all the card values on the reverse sides. (“Your card was… the Fo’ of Harrs!” “Your trick was the Full of Arse!”)

Soonyoung slid himself into his usual chair. The Choi’s dining table had space for six. ‘For guests’ was the cited reason behind the purchase, but it was more probable someone had convinced/ tempted (depending on how you looked at it) them. He had a content smile. “So what are you going to be doing today?”

Jihoon took the seat across him, noticeably not snarling. “Not much. I’ll probably head on down to Hell, see what’s been going on. You?”

For some reason, Soonyoung’s eyes were shifty. “Me too.” Then he backtracked. “I mean I’ll return to Heaven, of course, not that Hell’s bad. Actually Hell’s pretty bad, the worst, but that’s besides the point!” He threw in a shaky laugh.

Jihoon did not return it. “You’re going to miss here.”

Right on the money.

“Dearly.” Soonyoung sighed, downcast.

“Me too.”

Soonyoung snapped his attention to the devil before him, not quite expecting that level of frankness.

“Come on, angel, you didn’t think I was thaat heartless.”

Maybe he did. Soonyoung answered with the redness of his cheeks.

“I’m sorry.”

Jihoon laughed. “Well, 13 years is plenty of time to get attached, don’t you think?”

“I suppose… The human world has some splendid things.”

“Yeah they do.” He was referring to public transport delays, tax declarations, and microwaves that only went up to 700 when most instructions called for 800.

“Right?! Did you see the ad for that garden?” His eyes sparkled.

Jihoon refrained from pointing out that he saw virtually everything Soonyoung saw, and the ad he was talking about in particular played one too many times between the Saturday night blockbusters that the whole Choi family gathered to watch. Instead of that, he’d had an idea, and he leaned forward conspiratorially.

“Then why not go see it?”

Soonyoung was stunned. “Well… But…”

“You are on leave.” Jihoon pointed out.

“I wouldn’t… have anyone to go with.” He mumbled.

Jihoon raised an eyebrow at him. _‘I literally have the same days of leave as you.’_ That eyebrow quirk seemed to suggest. The puzzle piece fell into place with a gasp, which slowly gave way to a smile, broke into a giggle.

“So how about it?” Jihoon asked, a strange seduction to his tone. Occupational habit, he reasoned. There was never a time so far when he asked that question without trying to spur someone into some sort of wrongdoing. He decided to correct any possible misunderstanding by speaking more than he needed. “You would like to go, wouldn’t you?”

Without missing a beat, Soonyoung said, “yes.”

And it was settled. After breakfast, Papa Choi and Sofia were the first to leave, as he dropped his daughter off at primary school on his way to work. Followed by Vernon, kissing his mother on both cheeks before bumbling out of the door.

“Remember to pick up Sofia this afternoon.” She said to him.

“I will, Mum.” He answered.

“Have a nice day!”

“And be on your best behaviour!” Soonyoung called out.

“Or your worst.” Jihoon tacked on.

Then Mama Choi washed up everyone’s plates and disappeared into her studio to work on her paintings.

Finally, Soonyoung and Jihoon were gone.

 

* * *

 

Vernon felt slightly disoriented that day. He couldn’t quite put a finger on why, just that this vague, cloudy sense of disorientation trailed him like a shadow. His counsellor would call it Puberty. He wasn’t sure if that was it. Then again, people seemed only to recognise signs of puberty after the whole business was done so he shrugged it off.

There was nothing else noteworthy about the day. Breakfast happened as usual, the short bus ride to school was uneventful, and the rest of the walk went by without a hitch. He greeted some familiar faces on the way, and was seated seven minutes before the start of lesson proper. And if his classmates seemed a bit chattier than usual, he did not notice.

The alarm bell rang. Mrs Park came in on the dot, as she always managed to do, only this time she was followed by a chubby boy. He was dressed in the same uniform but it was obvious it was his first time wearing it because something didn’t look right, like he was wearing someone else’s clothes. Such an oddity was just screaming for attention. Vernon found himself staring, as did the rest of the class. Paradoxically, the boy seemed to shrink at the scrutiny. _Don’t look at me._ But it was hard to ignore.

“Okay class,” Mrs Park’s voice brought him out of his trance. “We have a new student who will be joining us today.”

She was gentle and smiled a great deal.

“Go ahead, introduce yourself.” She nodded encouragingly at the newcomer.

He took a visible breath before he started. “Nice to meet you all, my name is Boo Seungkwan. I came from Jeju Island. Please take care of me.” He gave a little bow.

All around, a wave of murmurs rippled through the crowd but Vernon couldn’t decipher what anything meant individually. He simply continued to stare forward.

“Good job.” Mrs Park said. Then she addressed the class. “Now, I want you all to be nice, understand?”

The children chorused a “yeeeeeeeeess”. Stretching out the words in the way students did best.

Mrs Park told Seungkwan to take the empty seat somewhere in the front. She told his seatmate to share textbooks for now, be courteous. According to the Rules of Romance, that seatmate should be Vernon. But it was not, it was a friendly girl named Yebin, and Vernon spent the rest of the lesson distractedly shooting glances at the new boy from his seat in the back.

Thanks to that curiosity, Vernon was a fair bit updated on affairs of Seungkwan by the end of the day. Like how he had the textbook for Chemistry but not for Maths. How his stationery set seemed to be largely dominated by oranges and blues. And how he’d slip into a Jeju accent when he was excited.

Come lunch, he was whisked away by Yebin and her friends. Vernon didn’t know what they talked about, sitting beside each other, but they seemed to hit it off really quickly. The uniform that looked so unnatural a few hours ago had already adapted to his skin. Vernon bit the inside of his cheeks.

This carried on all the way til the final bell and everyone was dismissed. An entire day passed and Vernon could hear Seungkwan cheerfully accepting an invitation to be shown around campus. He sure seemed to be getting along fine.

With a huff, Vernon stuffed his belongings into his bag and headed off to the field. He found Mingyu doing stretches. “Yo Vernon!” And Wonwoo off to the side, nose buried in a book as usual. “Hey.”

“Sup guys!”

Come to think of it, he didn’t really know how the two met because they’ve been a duo since he was introduced. They were both prefects involved in orientation week, and they were both put in charge of Vernon’s class, and they were already friends.

“No sunbaenim?” Mingyu joked.

“Sup Wonwoo sunbaenim and Mingyu.”

Wonwoo never took his eyes off his book but he stuck up a thumb in acknowledgement.

Mingyu rolled his eyes. “Ya kis yer matha wif tat mouth?” But he was relaxed as he said it, one arm folded behind his back. 1, 2, 3, 4. 2, 2, 3, 4.

Mingyu was on the school’s soccer team. Though their practices were twice a week, he’d spend most of his other after-schools playing matches with the other members for fun. On the other hand, Wonwoo did not belong to any club and was just waiting, presumably, to go home with his friend. It seemed like a natural conclusion because they were always together.

Meanwhile, Vernon was friends with the two of them, so he waited with Wonwoo on the grass, listening to music. He did have to kill some time before picking up Sofia anyhow. This was a calming way to spend the afternoon, if a little dry. Here and there, he or Wonwoo would say something, and then it’ll lull back to comfortable silence. Neither of them were much for conversations.

After a bit, Vernon could feel his legs start to go numb. So he stood, “I’m making a trip to the vending machine. You want anything?” Wonwoo shook his head. 

Vernon dusted off his butt and trotted away.

The vending machines weren’t too far from the field but Vernon took his own sweet time getting there. Besides, he hadn’t decided what he wanted to have despite knowing for sure that he wanted to drink something sweet. Carbonated? Non carbonated? You never knew which decision could bring about The End of The World. You know, butterfly flaps its wings in New Mexico, and whoosh, hurricane tearing through China.

As he inserted the coins, a chatter could be heard coming around the corner. Yebin walked by, halfway through pointing out the field and Mingyu sunbaenim. She gave Vernon the nod of, _I recognise you’re in my class but we don’t talk_. Still undecided, he nodded back and pushed any button on the machine. The rest of them speak of the field too. There’s Lee Dongmin on the field, Kim Yugyeom on the field, Jung Yoon Ohn the field. Squeal and giggle.

Seungkwan hmmed attentively at it all.

Vernon rolled his eyes as he too turned to look at the field. And a good thing too because the first thing he saw was a blur of black and white approaching rapidly. Without thinking, his legs propel him over.

The can plonked.

Vernon caught the ball with his hands.

A couple of centimeters from him, a shellshocked Seungkwan, and the girls eyes wide, hands over their mouths.

Seungkwan blinked himself back to focus. Vernon noticed he had pretty eyes.

“You okay?” He asked.

Still a smidgen out of it, Seungkwan said, “ye… yeah...”

It could end there. Vernon could make one more remark. “Be more careful.” or something along those lines. And then he would take the ball back to the guys playing soccer and that would be the end of it.

But Vernon had wanted to talk to Seungkwan all day.

So without bothering about the girls standing awkwardly by, or the boys shouting for him to “throw the ball back, dammit,” Vernon said, “how’ve you been adjusting to school?”

Seungkwan blushed and laughed.

At least Yebin, bless her sensibleness, stepped in to invite Vernon to come along to a cafe with them after they were done showing Seungkwan around the school. Vernon agreed in a heartbeat, going back to the horde of noisy, complaining boys.

Wonwoo gave him a knowing look. He shoved the older male playfully.

Suddenly just being with Wonwoo was too quiet, and it took forever before Yebin’s group reappeared. They wave for Vernon to join them, he went instantly.

“Have fun.” Wonwoo said too singsong.

“Shut up.” Vernon replied.

And Sofia sat dejectedly on a bench, waiting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- 大家好 ^^)/
> 
> \- haha, i think it's slowly getting to the meat of the stuff, but this whole fic is still one big question mark oh boy  
> \--- this chapter stopped at a pretty awkward point, didn't it? /nervous sweating/ 
> 
> \- i didn't use the korean concept of age +1 because i remembered too late shush
> 
> \- and also, mrs park is kahi
> 
> \- by the way, thanks to everyone who left comments! i love you guys!


	5. we'd both be here tonight (yeah)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- i think this is the fastest i have ever updated a fic to its 4th chapter

Here’s what Vernon used to know about Yebin:

 

1) She was a girl.

2) She was in his class.

 

That’s it.

But now he was slowly learning other things about the girl. Like how she was also rather observant as a person, very perspective. She was kind-hearted, lively, good to her friends. And she was the type to take action if she saw something that she wanted changed.

Logically, by combining all those mentioned traits, she would also be the type to take action on behalf of a friend, whom she picked up on as wanting something changed but for various reasons, wasn’t doing anything about it themselves.

In this equation, the ‘friend’ was Vernon (they’d become friends somewhere between him catching the ball and her popping the question, can’t get more personal than that, really). The ‘wanted something’ was standing next to Boo Seungkwan. And the ‘action’ was Yebin very unsubtly forcing the two to walk together as she grabbed both her female friends by the arms to engage them in _girl talk_.

Now, Vernon was a thankful person but there was one important factor that the well meaning girl didn’t calculate. The rampaging dinosaurs of this metaphorical Jurassic Park. ‘Various reasons’, as stated above, deserved to be in fluorescent yellow highlighter, and underlined, twice.

Because it would, theoretically, be painfully awkward. What would Vernon even say?

However, Seungkwan turned to him with an easy smile.

“Thanks again for the save back there.” He tilted his head a little as he said it, indicating the direction of back there.

Vernon found himself shoving his hands in his pockets. “That was nothing.” A little shrug. “I’m sure most people would have done the same.”

Without missing a beat, Seungkwan laughed. “Yeah but I don’t most people could have caught the ball like that.” Then he stuck out a hand, waved it about. “Like, maybe they’d smack it away. I’m not even sure I’d make it on time if it were me. So what you did,” He pointed at Vernon. “That was cool.”

By magic, his throat turned impossibly dry and Vernon had to cough in the opposite direction, almost choking out the words.  “Thanks.”

Seungkwan gave him a slight shrug. Then he extended a hand.

“Well, anyway, you might know but my name is Seungkwan, Boo Seungkwan, nice to meet you…”

“Vernon.”

Said Vernon, taking the hand with an intense hope that his palms weren't too sweaty.

“Vernon?” Seungkwan parroted. “I don’t mean to be rude but are you a foreigner?”

“Not exactly.” Vernon started, the words already rolling off his tongue with practiced ease. “My mum’s American but I’ve pretty much lived in Korea all my life so I’m kind of as Korean as it gets.”

Seungkwan nodded in understanding, a silent ‘ahh’ passing through his lips.The next words were murmured, and tinted with a hue of wistfulness, but Vernon caught them anyway. “I kind of wished you might be a transfer too.”

This statement made the boy frown. “How come?”

“So I’d have a transfer buddy or something.” Seungkwan answered, looking away.

“Hmm…” Vernon hummed. “I think Jieqiong behind us came from China.”

“Yeah but I meant more like-”

Yank.

And Seungkwan was suddenly not beside him, but somewhere behind. More like what? He hastily spun on his heel, only to be greeted by Yebin holding onto Seungkwan by the collar.

“We’ve passed the place, numbskulls.” She chastised in a happy tone. Then, since she was already holding Seungkwan, she led them both in with a merry declaration, “their parfaits are seriously the best in the area!”

With that they disappeared into the shop.

Vernon let out a sigh, making his way to follow the two, until something rather heavy landed on his foot.

It was one of the other girls, Jieqiong, whom he’d just mentioned as having came from China. Friend of Yebin’s, she was in the next class over, a girl who rather minded her own business. She stood on his left, one foot above his, and one eyebrow raised impossibly high. (Subtitle: “Really, dude? We gave you a nice set up and you squander it being an idiot.”)

He felt a pressure on his other foot, which was unsurprisingly, the other girl. Eunwoo, if he remembered correctly, classmates with Jieqiong. Without saying a word, she stuck out both arms, palms open, gesticulating wildly in the direction of the cafe doors. (Subtitle: “Guys, hurry on, I think there’s a discount going on now and I can’t wait to eat extra ice cream.”)

Blinking, he turned back to Jieqiong. Said girl rolled her eyes, threw her hands in the air, and shook her head. (Subtitle: “Honestly, boys are so unbelievable.”)

Eunwoo sighed way too dramatically, in that shoulder sagging way, then she put her face in her hands. (Subtitle: “What? The discount is over? But I was really looking forward to it…”)

Jieqiong finally released Vernon’s foot. She went over to her friend to rest an encouraging palm on her shoulder. (Subtitle: “There, there, I’m sure they’ll work it out.”)

Eunwoo peeped up. (Subtitle: “You’re right, there’ll always be another sale.”)

They shared a nod of understanding, and then made their way through the doors as well.

All in all, the mime conversation left Vernon pretty baffled. He decided not to think about it and trailed in after all of them. 

 

* * *

 

 

Jihoon walked slowly along, barely sparing any glances at the flowers when Soonyoung was a couple of strides ahead of him, virtually dancing down the pathway.

There weren’t many people around, which was normal, seeing as it was the afternoon on a weekday and most people had jobs or school to be at. So the space was currently fairly empty, just him and Soonyoung, a number of old folks, a sprinkling of security guards and a shit ton of flowers.

At Soonyoung’s insistence, they were in their human forms. Essentially, just them without the wings or the horns. Them as the version that other humans could see. Switching forms was a pain (mostly because it was ridiculously arduous to get permission and/or clearing from Hell for anything) but somehow he told Soonyoung ‘sure’ the moment the other male brought it up so he supposed he had to do it. Then again, what’s a devil without breaking a few rules.

But man he couldn’t understand the appeal of flora. They were pretty in small doses but absolutely senseless in droves. Apparently, there were finer things to be appreciated about how they were arranged so their colours complemented each other, or how some of the flowers were finicky, tough to breed, but look, dedication brought them to life anyway.

“Jihoon, look!” Soonyoung beckoned, finger pointing excitedly at something in the distance.

Jihoon obliged. Off to the back, there was a rickety sign with words painted on it. ‘FLOWER CROWN BOOTH’

The implication was clear as day.

‘Heavens no.’ Jihoon thought, but again the thing that slipped out of his mouth was, “sure.”

Soonyoung seemed to perk up on a fresh spark of energy. He pinched Jihoon by the sleeve, ever so carefully, and dragged them both down the way.

Manning the booth was a little old lady who smiled pleasantly. Her face was full of wrinkles, and her eyes were long and thin but they were smiling too.

“Good day.” She greeted. “You two want to try the flower crowns?”

“Yes please.” Soonyoung bowed.

“Entry tickets?”

This prompted Soonyoung to fish theirs* out from his pocket.

* Obviously Soonyoung and Jihoon had disagreed on the method of acquiring said tickets. Finally, Jihoon agreed to Soonyoung’s stupid idea of busking. Just their luck** that an insanely rich politician happened to be in the area for a photo op, and was willing to shower them a couple of hundred dollars for a bit of good rep. “You see how the economy has failed our youth?” He said to a camera. “Poor dears have to busk despite their education.”

** Luck = Jihoon’s Devil magic.

She made a cursory glance, handing it back almost instantly.

“Alright, come in. There’s the instructions.” She pointed to one end. “All the tools you’d need.” She pointed to the other end. “And the flowers,” she indicated to the bed in the middle.

Then she turned to the two of them. “You get 45 mins, and you can keep whatever you made. I recommend Tulips and Irises for romance.” She gave them a thumbs up sign before she returned to her counter.

Jihoon made sure she was out of earshot. “Real flowers?”

“Of course not.” Soonyoung said, and he waved his hand across the bed, turning them all into synthetic replicas. That would surely give someone a headache to explain so Jihoon allowed himself a smile as he joined Soonyoung to look at the instructions.

He’d read the first sentence, a cheerful welcome message that read ‘so you want to make your own flower crown,’ and he gave up. Instructions were for losers. He went ahead to start gathering the wire and his choice of decoration - mainly all the twigs, and leaves, and a few crimson red flowers thrown in the mix.

Soonyoung returned after a bit, significantly more well prepared. He got the correct length of wires, gloves, and all the optional little ribbons and glue that he must have learnt of through properly reading the instructions. His flower palette was predictably full of warm colours and white.

The wind blew in a comforting breeze. Fingers twining with stalks, stalks wrapping around wire. Silence that pressed gently in the air, enveloping like a comforting cocoon.

Somewhere Soonyoung paused in his actions and looked up.

“What?” Jihoon asked.

Soonyoung chucked. “I just thought of tossing flower rings onto your horns. It’ll be just like that human game.”

Jihoon narrowed his eyes.

“If you so much as dare, angel, I will use your halo as a basketball hoop.” But then the actual image flashed through his mind and it was ridiculous enough that he couldn’t help the snort.

Soonyoung laughed along with him. “It’ll be funny though.”

Which Jihoon had to admit, it would be pretty funny.

The old lady peeked her head around the corner at the duo, catching them laughing together on the grass. Her great many years on this Earth has provided her with wisdom. If anyone sat with her for a chat, she’d be able to speak all about the folly of war, give advice to invest in watches, don’t be a cheapskate. Of course, she was also a self-proclaimed expert on matters of the heart.

And she simply could not help herself in the face of a couple.

Someone cleared their throat in front of her. Her heart jumped a beat faster but she turned calmly to see a couple of young children being chaperoned by their mother.

“You would like to try making flower crowns?” She smiled.

“Yes!” One of the little girls exclaimed.

“Here’re our tickets.” The mother presented the pieces of paper, crumpled and stained with what looked to be chocolate. But the old lady ushered them in, reciting off the lines all the same. Then when she left the family to do their thing, she turned and noticed that the two were gone. Perhaps they left while she wasn’t looking. A shame, their 45 minutes weren’t up yet. Besides, they’d left their handiworks behind too.

She went over to gather them.

And she really was wise because she was able to make out the types and meaning of the flowers at a glance.

One had Arbour Vitae leaves (unchanging friendship), Red Morning Glories (attachment), and  Lime (conjugal infidelity).

The other, White Carnation (endearment),  Ranunculus in Orange (you are radiant, I am dazzled by your charms), and Cinquefoil (maternal affection).

Ah, young love.

She thought, storing the suspiciously plastic feeling wreaths near the counter in case they come back.

Meanwhile, Soonyoung and Jihoon stepped out of the area once they were done. No sense in staying any longer than necessary.

Again, Soonyoung pulled at his partner’s sleeve. This time he was pointing towards the ice cream stand.

‘Heck’, thought Jihoon, at this point, “why not?”

 

* * *

 

The lady slid their orders across the glass counter with an impassive stare.

“Thanks.” Vernon said uneasily, picking up the tray, doing his best with balancing all five orders.

He approached their table.

The girls were all squeezed into one side of the booth, leaving Vernon no other option than to sit beside Seungkwan on the opposing side. Eunwoo snatched her order off the moment the tray touched the table.

“By the way,” Yebin spoke with underlying intent, picking her order from the tray. “What club are you in again, Vernon?”

All eyes fell on him.

“I’m not actually part of any club.” He responded, slightly sheepish.

Shovelling a spoonful of dessert into her mouth, Eunwoo piped up. “Oh, then what about joining our Drama Club?”

Oh, that explained what they were doing at the door. (It didn’t)

Vernon looked uneasy. “I don’t know, man, I’ve never seen myself as the acting type.”

Eunwoo deflated.

“That’s understandable.” Yebin assured, flapping her hands in front of her.

Then Jieqiong slid a little forward, leaning her elbow on the surface of the table, her entire demeanor too impish. “Well, I guess it’s just you and us, Kwannie.”

Vernon’s eyes went wide.

Seungkwan’s laugh was shaky at best. “I, yeah, I mean I’m looking forward to working with you.”

“You’re joining Drama?” Vernon sounded strangely scandalised.

“I like performing.” Seungkwan told him.

“It’ll be a blast!” Yebin guaranteed.

“The seniors put on Sleeping Beauty last year, and it looked totally fun.” Jieqiong added.

Eunwoo brightened. “Yeah! We still have the recordings. Minkyung unnie was stunning.” She nudged Yebin in the side.

“Wow, I would like to see.” Seungkwan clasped his hands together.

Vernon slammed down on the table.

 

* * *

 

 

Soonyoung leapt backwards, squealing.

“What’s wrong, angel?” Jihoon asked nonchalantly, pretending not to notice his cone held at a strange angle.

“Stop being mean.” He whined.

“Whatever do you mean?” Jihoon raised a brow. He gave his cone, vanilla ice cream and all, a little wave, watching as droplets of the melting confectionery landed inches from Soonyoung shoes.

The angel yelped again.

“Stop that. You’re making a messsssss-I-AHhh.”

Jihoon couldn’t help it, watching Soonyoung’s face contort into such wild expressions like that. It was frankly the most amusing.

“Eeep, Jihoonie!”

His entire body froze. What?

Soonyoung cocked his head to the side, puzzled.

Before Jihoon could respond to anything, he heard a voice scream his name in his mind. He would recognise that voice anywhere.

“Sorry, angel, I gotta take this.” Jihoon snarled. “Higher ups.” He mouthed in case the walls had ears.

“Oh.” Soonyoung said.

Jihoon trotted his way to the lake. In actuality any mirrored surface would do. He breathed and looked in, feeling some annoyance as his form morphed slowly into one with long hair and handsome features, and suddenly he was staring at someone else.

Yoon Jeonghan looked furious.

“Hey hyung.” Jihoon smiled.

“Hey hyung my ass. Why are you in human form?”

Being straight to the point has always been one of the older’s strengths.

“I’m on leave.”

“On leave from fighting for The Child, not from being a Creature of Hell.” Jeonghan snapped.

“Well what kind of Devil would I be, without a little rebellion?” Wink wonk.

“Don’t quip me boy.” Then he let out a long suffering sigh. “Just don’t do this again.”

“Roger.” Jihoon affirmed, but he crossed his fingers visibly.

Jeonghan flipped him the bird.

“Have a rotten day.” He told him.

Jihoon repeated the sentiment. And then he faded from the water. There was an old man looking at him, shaking his head disapprovingly.

A ways off, Soonyoung was still standing there, his own ice cream finished, as he shuffled his feet waiting. Jihoon quickly jogged back.

Soonyoung straightened once he caught sight of the boy. “Was that important?” A crease in his brow.

“Nah. Just some stuffy logistics nonsense.”

“That’s a relief.” Then he was smiling again. Jihoon was glad; Soonyoung had a lovely smile.

He remembered the cone in his hand and held it out, snickering. Soonyoung dodged expertly.

“Jihoonie~!”

 

* * *

 

 

Everybody froze, taken aback from the suddenness of Vernon’s outburst.

“I’ll…” He determinedly stared at the floor. “I’ll join Drama Club too.”

The tension disappeared, broken with a snap.

“Oh are you sure?” Jieqiong laid a hand over his. “I’m afraid it might not be where you see yourself.”

Yebin choked.

“I’ll join!” Vernon asserted.

“Hooray!” Eunwoo cheered. “New member! New member! Ice cream shot!”

They raise their glasses, unable to deny the girl’s antics, hearty laughs all around the table.

Seungkwan set his cup back down, other hand patting Vernon’s arm.

“I, erm, I’m looking forward to working with you.”

Vernon found the corners of his lips rising against his will.

Nothing could get him down that day.

 

* * *

 

 

Sofia pointedly ignored her brother all through dinner. She didn’t so much as glance in his direction when he attempted to give her extra food, and pretended not to hear him speak. Once or twice she nearly forgot about her cause and almost called out to him out of habit, but then she’d bite her cheek and turn away. Vernon was wilting inside.

His mother and father had both given him harsh looks for forgetting something he promised he would do but relented when Vernon apologised profusely.

Although Sofia was still upset and that night, he walked by her door and thought to knock but found that he couldn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- sup
> 
> \- all i have to say is that i'm still perpetually in a state of 'help' while writing this but thanks to everybody who sticks around anyway  
> \--- appreciation to ya
> 
> \- btw, if you know what those flowers look like lol they don't match  
> \--- i'm also not sure how trustworthy the site i used for the meanings is but eh
> 
> \- verkwan will grow older and soonhoon look as they do now (and have looked that way for almost a century) 
> 
> \- also, @hoziwooshi if you wanna talk/ tell me i suck


	6. and the world looks so much brighter (brighter)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- i'm tired  
> \- chapters 1-4: 8k, chapter 5: 4k whut
> 
> \- there is like some violence in this one

“Jihoon,” a tentative beat, “I-”

“Am not having fun.” Jihoon filled in on the other’s behalf, slightly sarcastic but no real bite, and he chuckled lightly. He cocked his head upwards to find Soonyoung perched on the gigantic chandelier. The angel was pouting. Jihoon couldn’t see why. After all he was on a chandelier, swaying gently with the decorative light, which should be at least somewhat fun. In principle.

“That I am not.” Soonyoung confirmed, attempting to rise, shaking dangerously, and quickly returning to his previous balance. “Please help me down.”

“How’d you actually get up there?” Jihoon questioned, one eyebrow raised.

“Erm.” said Soonyoung, quite as if he’d rather not say.

See, it was a long story.

The day started terribly.

Actually it started in the comfortable hotel room, waking up to see Jihoon curled like a cat in his bed, sleeping soundly, and that was pretty delightful. Soonyoung rose quietly, feeling the life stirring all around him. He’d always loved the Earth because he was taught that way. To appreciate all of God’s creations. But it was not until he was sent to the world did he actually feel it for himself. How the wind could sing. How the sun’s rays hugged everything it touched. And just how beautiful the world truly was.

Trying to be as silent as possible, he swung his feet off the bed, felt them press into the cold wood furnishing beneath. He almost startled. Catching his breath, he settled back down, wriggled his toes before standing, padding his way to the window.

He drew the curtains back a peep, a thin beam shooting into the room, just enough space for Soonyoung to see out of without bothering his still sleeping companion. The world outside was far below yet full of energy, people walking speedily along the roadsides, a neverending stream of cars. Soonyoung placed a palm on the glass, feeling the heat tinge on his fingertips. He leant closer, straining a bit before he could make out the sounds of doors opening and closing, the roar of engines, and so many conversations overlapping each other none of them made any sense anymore.

Carefully, he unfurled his wings as he stretched. One flap, two flaps, fluffing out the feathers. Being in human form sure had its perks, mostly with interacting with the world, but his wings always got so cramped up afterwards.

Behind him, there was a light groan. Soonyoung paused, threw his head over his shoulder to watch Jihoon’s reaction. The guy was still on his side, facing Soonyoung, but he was significantly more curled in towards himself. All that wind must be chilly. So Soonyoung made one more quick flap before he was folding his wings into himself again.

Then in an instant, he had a flash of an idea, and he left their rented room.

He’d vaguely remembered the receptionist mentioning it while they were checking in. A thing he wasn’t quite paying attention to because it was his first time in any hotel ever and what do you mean there’s a business of renting out rooms to people for a period of time? What about love thy neighbour? Surely people would be courteous enough to let us into their houses for a night. Followed by, shut up, angel, and let me handle this.

The lady at reception, her nametag read ‘Amy Lee’ had good naturedly asked if they were looking for one bed.

For some reason Jihoon choked.

Soonyoung looked at the her quizzically. “Of course not, there’s two of us.”

Jihoon reached over to the stand of brochures on the marble counter, and smacked Soonyoung in the mouth with ‘A Must Visit for All Drama Fans, The Island of Romance, Namiseom Island’. Verdana, font 40, attention demanding yellow. “Shut up, angel.” He hissed.

Turning back to the lady. “Two beds please.”

And then they got into the hotel room, where Soonyoung was so honestly fascinated by the prospect of scanning a card to enter the room and THEN using the same card to turn on the lights, he’d convinced Jihoon to let him go in and out several more times just because. (Eventually, Jihoon straight up swiped it from the other with a ‘let’s just have our desserts and go to sleep.”)

But that was then, and now Soonyoung was trying to figure out which part of the hotel they kept the complimentary breakfasts.

He passed by the reception area again and was mildly surprised to find Amy Lee still there.

“Good morning.” He waved to her.

Recognition flashed by her eyes and she gave him a small close-lipped smile back. “Good morning, Sir.” Then, just as her Communication For Effective Customer Management module had ingrained into her, “where is your… friend?” There was an extra question mark at friend too.

Soonyoung’s smile was easy. “He’s still asleep. I think he had too many creampies last night.”

Amy Lee was sure she would have squawked, but her body was a well-oiled Customer Management machine, and in a neutral tone that surprised even her, she managed to politely say, “duly noted.”

What a nice lady. Soonyoung thought. Then he seemed to remember his mission. “Can you point me to the complimentary breakfast?”

Now this was more her element. She flashed him a confident smile and the directions rolled off her tongue like flowing water.

“Thank you.” Soonyoung bowed and he was on his way.

Left at her counter, Amy blinked a couple of times. Wow, society sure has come a long way.

Meanwhile, Soonyoung cheerfully ordered breakfast for two and after a bit of hoo-ha (“You can’t leave the premises with the plates, Sir!”), successfully had them delivered to their room of 0507.

When the door clicked shut, Jihoon opened his eyes. He was greeted with the sight of abalone porridge and kimchi jjigae, steam rising from them, just inches from his face.

“Good morning Jihoonie.”

Jihoon deliberately smashed his face into the pillows with a loud groan. Soonyoung had taken to calling him that and it was… annoying. It was not annoying in itself. He really didn’t know what he felt about it and not knowing was annoying.

Soonyoung was on the other side of his bed, a weight causing a dip, leaning his elbows on the plush mattress, so his head hovered near Jihoon’s just so. “You gotta wake up and eat your breakfast.” He fussed.

With a last groan just for show, Jihoon peeled himself away from the pillows. He had lumps of stray hair sticking up all over the place and Soonyoung had to fight his intrinsic need to smoothen it. Instead his fingers itch for something to do and he’s setting the table all over again.

Jihoon came to join him, still rubbing the last of sleep from his eyes. “You got food.” He mused.

“Yeap.”

“Thanks.”

Something came over Soonyoung. A sudden swelling of his heart and then the excess air travelled upwards, pulling his lips along, his cheeks blooming. “Of course!”

Jihoon made a humming noise. They both sat and started their meals.

“Where are we going today?” Jihoon asked conversationally. The past 24 hours had been the most unexpected time of his life.

Biting down on his chopsticks, Soonyoung gave it some thought. “Well, since I picked yesterday, why don’t we go wherever you want today!” He punctuated the statement with a burst of cheer.

Jihoon’s a solid 90% sure Soonyoung will regret this decision but he’s not one to turn down opportunities when they come knocking at his door, seeking shelter from the rain. So with a quirk of the lips that wasn’t quite a smirk but certainly devilish enough, he went, “okay, I want to go to a casino.”

The lament passed by Soonyoung’s face. “A casino?” He enunciated.

“You heard me.”

“Around here?”

“Vegas.”

Gulp.

“It’s a 12 hour flight.” Soonyoung attempted to dissuade.

“If it’s the human type of flight.” Jihoon challenged.

Soonyoung sort of looked like he already fainted on the inside.

Hours later, they’d checked out and Jihoon got shifty eyes from Amy the Receptionist when he asked where they could find sturdy rope and a pair of handcuffs. Soonyoung followed the shorter into an alley, who carried all their newly procured equipment, with all the hesitance he could muster.

Jihoon handed him the rope along with instructions to tie it as tightly around his abdomen as comfortably (even slightly uncomfortably would do) possible. He secured the other end around himself. When Soonyoung was done with that, he clasped a cuff around the angel’s wrist despite the latter’s mewl of protest.

“Aw don’t worry your pretty little head, angel, it’s gonna be fun.” His tone whimsical as he whispered into Soonyoung’s ear. The other cuff clicked its metallic lock around his wrist. There was a shadow to that promise.

Then, without warning, he jumped up into the air, his boost unnaturally high. Soonyoung screamed the whole way up. They peak some ten thousand metres in the sky, where they plateau out and for a split second, they were well and truly suspended in the air.

Time seemed to slow, with them caught at the end of a momentum. Soonyoung was thankful for that slowness, because then he could accurately bunch his fists into parts of Jihoon’s shirt while avoiding his skin.

Jihoon winked at him.

 _I can open your eyes._ He sang.

“Now is not the time!” Soonyoung complained, overlapping Jihoon’s _Take you wonder by wonder._

There was something too mischievous in Jihoon’s eyes then, and Soonyoung felt his throat go dry, drier.

_Over._

The guy belted, bringing them even higher. “Don’t use the Lord’s name in vain.” Soonyoung reminded himself.

_Sideways._

A snappy jet to the side. “Don’t use the Lord’s name in vain.”

_And under._

“Son of a bitch!”

As Jihoon took him through a loop the loop, laughing the entire time.

_On a magic carpet ride._

Soonyoung trembled. Jihoon wanted to touch his face again. He quashed that feeling by spinning them around once more, and when Soonyoung yelped, he laughed, and finally set a course for Las Vegas, Nevada.

 

* * *

 

Vernon got off the bus, his shoes scraping the uneven mortar. His backpack was heavier than usual. Then again, Sofia was still miffed at him about the incident from yesterday. Which she displayed by giving him the curt-est of curt responses at breakfast. Thinking about it made Vernon sigh. He supposed she was already softening as that was still an improvement over the outright cold shoulder from dinner the night before but…

It left a bad taste in his mouth, the fact that he’d actually forgotten about her in favour of new friends, no matter how cute or interesting those new friends might be.

He carried that cloud with him all the way through the day’s classes. During recess, Seungkwan and Yebin came to sit with him. In light of his apparent gloom, the former presented a bit of his lunch to share - dishes from his hometown of Jeju. The latter presented him the application form for Drama Club.

Different strokes for different folks.

Glancing at the papers remind him of The Debacle and he slid it out of sight.

Yebin chewed her bottom lip nervously. “Hey, it’s no pressure if you didn’t really mean what you said yesterday.”

Vernon’s response is a nod, and the subject is left at that.

It’s not until the final bell rang before Seungkwan is poking him in the cheek, standing with evident worry by his desk. Most of the class had shuffled out at this point, everyone thrilled at the very concept of finally getting to leave the stuffy classroom, and they can go do much more interesting things. Even Yebin had left with her usual girls. Eunwoo and Jieqiong raised their eyebrows about the two males, but Yebin steered them away, better leave them be for now.

“You okay?” Seungkwan broke the silence, pulling the nearest chair over to use.

Vernon glanced at him. “It’s no big deal, really.”

Seungkwan levelled him with a disbelieving stare. “Then surely you can say what it is.”

A valid point. Vernon swallowed.

“I just did something shitty to my sister so I’m feeling bad about it.”

Seungkwan sighed in a way that Vernon felt was truly empathetic and suddenly he had a question.

“Do you have siblings?”

“Two older sisters.” Seungkwan held up two fingers. His expression was a cross of long-suffering and fond.

“Yeah?” Vernon’s amused. None of his friends have got two older sisters. “How does that work out for you?”

Seungkwan waved his hand like it’s no big deal although his face was clearly brighter than before. “Oh you know, they get super pushy and they ask for a lot of things. Always saying to respect your elders.” His voice went up an octave to demonstrate. “But they’re nice. I was always top in class because they tutor me at home. It’s basically like a third chance at the papers by the time it’s my turn.”

“They sound like nice people.” Vernon commented.

Seungkwan had a proud look. “What about yours?” He asked back.

“I have a younger sister, just the one. She’s sweet. Sometimes I feel like she might be getting a little spoilt but you can’t help giving in to her a little, you know?”

A chuckle, another look of understanding. “Must be a sister thing.”

Vernon agreed easily.

“And what did you do?”

A small spark of tension came back but Vernon decided he was comfortable enough to share.

“I was supposed to pick her up yesterday afternoon but I forgot and left her there for some time.” There was guilt all over the statement.

“Yesterday afternoon?” Seungkwan spoke. He was a bright kid, and the implication clicked immediately. “Oh… you were with us…”

That he was.

“Is she a hair clip or hair tie person?” The question was too sudden.

“What?”

“Come on, hair clip or hair tie, we’re going to make it up to her.”

Vernon didn’t see how the two things connected.

“We’re going to buy her a gift as an apology. Look, going by how you’re acting, I don’t think you’ve handled this situation many times so trust me. Hair accessories are like Sister Appeaser 101. Boo Guarantee.”

Oh.

Which still begged the question. “Why we?”

Seungkwan blinked. “I feel a little bad too, I mean about yesterday. So come on.” He was raring to go, Vernon followed. They left their chairs untucked. And then Seungkwan spun around on his heel to say, “actually you have to lead, I’m still clueless about this place.”

Vernon laughed as he took the step forward.

 

* * *

 

They touchdown in the foreign land and Soonyoung melted into a puddle, almost kissing the floor.

“Well, here we are.” Jihoon declared. “Quote, unquote, sin city.” He fished out the key to free both their hands so he could make a grand gesture.

Soonyoung moaned. “Jihoon.”

“Yeah?”

“I am not having fun.”

Jihoon swept that under the rug, working on untying himself. Well, honestly, if there were one place in the world it wouldn’t matter at all if two guys were tied to each other by a piece of rope, it’d be Vegas. Although Jihoon’s not keen on any extra attention today. It’s been awhile since he was here and really, all he wanted was to relax, unwind, indulge. Plus, he already had enough on his plate ie, an angel to babysit. Wouldn’t want Soonyoung getting into any unnecessary trouble.

He turned and Soonyoung was surrounded by five ladies, who between them were 20% clothes and 80% skin.

Ah, like that.

Soonyoung had his arms up, creating distance but showing too much surrender at the same time. The ladies understood that second part painfully well.

At first Jihoon was completely amused, seeing Soonyoung so confused and flustered, he liked that look on Soonyoung, so different from his usual. But then one of them got too close. Suddenly, as if that 10 centimetres made a big difference, he could see every ugly etch in her face, every feature twisted into nastiness. He was irritated.

Realising the rope was still in his hands, he tugged and Soonyoung came stumbling backwards, towards him. It was unclear which party was more shocked by this.

For his next trick, he sent a well aimed kick to the back of Soonyoung’s knees, bringing the guy down into the floor.

“Woah!” Soonyoung exclaimed, falling onto his knees.

And now Jihoon was higher, just what he needed.

Like this he could easily put one hand before Soonyoung’s eyes, not touching though so the guy could still look out of his peripherals. At the same time, he leant down, face almost buried in the other’s neck.

Jihoon could already hear Soonyoung’s question forming in his throat. He knew what he’d say too. Well, they have known each other for over a decade now. He didn’t want Soonyoung saying anything though. So he beat him to the punch, voice low as he purred into the angel’s ear loud enough for their audience.

“Babe,” he slurred. “Are these people bothering you?”

A chill shot down his spine, Soonyoung couldn’t reply. Hitch, an involuntary breath shuddered out, “Jihoonie?” He couldn’t see the ladies’ reactions either but he felt embarrassed all the same. Actually, not being able to see was worse. Because then he didn’t know what they truly thought and all he could think was how strangely exposed he was.

In reality, the ladies have only the vaguest notion of disappointment before they move on quickly.

Satisfied, Jihoon uncovered Soonyoung’s eyes, and took a good look at his face flushed a brilliant shade of crimson. He couldn’t help it, the appreciative whistle that slipped out.

Soonyoung frowned back, more cute than threatening. “I am not having fun.”

 

* * *

 

Truth be told, Vernon knew the shopping street only marginally more than Seungkwan. And seeing as Seungkwan was pretty much foreign to it, that was saying something. Well, it couldn’t be helped. Vernon never had as much interest in fashion.

Predictably, they got to the the main street and both pause, staring at each other in the most ‘what now?’ moment Vernon had ever experienced.

“Right, I don’t know where anything is.” Vernon explained, waving a hand to indicate pretty much everything.

Seungkwan looked at him for a beat more before he visibly sagged. “Oh my gosh.” He playfully punched Vernon in the arm. “You’re absolutely useless.”

They didn’t know each other that long but Vernon knew it was said in only the most endearing way possible and he didn’t take offence, enjoying the way Seungkwan looked so happy instead.

“Which way do you say we go?”

They both made cursory observations of their immediate surroundings. Then in unison, both pointed to the West Street, and chorused, “there.”

The unity surprised them, made them both snap their heads towards each other. And then they were laughing because wow, what timing! But they walk side by side towards the area they pointed out.

They turn out to be both wrong, because they couldn’t really find what they were looking for down that stretch.

“Looks like un-great minds think alike too.” Vernon jested. They walked back to the start and headed North this time. Clockwise direction, you know.

“Excuse you, my mind is great, thank you very much.” Seungkwan shook his head.

Unlike earlier, they do find a shop selling accessories but Seungkwan didn’t think any of the accessories there were particularly cute. “Which undermines this whole operation, really.”

So they went again, setting off to the East.

Vernon respected how Seungkwan was still so energetic. Still so much strength in his step and rhythm in his voice. He had a nice voice, Vernon concluded.

“Did your whole family move?” He asked, wanting to hear more.

“Nope, it’s just me, actually.”

There must be a story there because Seungkwan inhaled loudly before he continued. “My parents think there are more opportunities here in the country rather than our island. But they’ve always thought that, never could find a way to let go of what they’d built though, or enough money to uproot the whole family, for that matter.”

“But then my Father and Uncle talked one day, see I have this cousin who’s left to attend school overseas, and there’s like a space for one of us to come in to study if we’d like. It should be the oldest sister, but she’s already got her sights set on working as a teacher in the local nursery. The second oldest declared that it should never be the middle child, either the oldest or the youngest.”

“And as for me… well, I’m not sure if this is the best thing to do. It sounded exciting to go to a new place but, I miss my family all the time, and I don’t know if this is the right thing at all.”

There was a weird sense of surrealism. Boo Seungkwan, whom Vernon had up til then associated with smiles, and laughs, and merry things, was looking downcast in a sea of people all cheering and having a generally good time.

“We’ll make it fun.” Vernon proclaimed.

Seungkwan blinked at him. “What?”

“I mean, I don’t know if it’s the right thing either, but it’s all about making the most out of everything, right? So we’ll make it a fun time. Then, even if it’s wrong, at least you’ll have had some fun.”

Sensible advice. That said… “Why we?”

“Because we’re friends now, aren’t we?” Vernon wasn’t asking. He craned his neck to the side a little. “Yo, I found another store.”

And he excitedly bounded towards it.

Seungkwan regained himself, chasing after his friend. “Wait for me! Your fashion sense is too terrible to do this by yourself!”

 

* * *

 

The thing about casinos was that there was no day or night in them. It was just one endless stream of time, and anything could happen in between.

Some guards came to ask the duo for identification at the entrance but Jihoon snapped his fingers and the guy just stepped to the side.

Inside, everything was swanky, heavy carpet, embossed wallpaper. Tables filled one half of the hall, they all looked to be made of expensive wood. The other half, slot machines lined side by side in rows, all neon signs and clinky sounds.

Further back, there was a stairway and several doors, all heavily guarded by burly looking men in suits, with very obvious microphones attached to their ears.

And hanging above it all, as if untouchable, a beautiful chandelier that was all gold and diamonds, sparkling brightly in the midst of the all the terrible things a casino was wont to ferment.

Soonyoung was uncomfortable at the smells of smoke mixed with something sour, the noise was weird too. He tugged at the back of Jihoon’s shirt.

“I really don’t know about this.”

“We went to your garden yesterday, it’s only fair.”

Fair. Yes, a decidedly virtuous thing to engage in, although the lump in his throat persisted. “What do you want to do anyway?” Go a couple of rounds at the machines? Play a bit of cards?

Jihoon lit up. “I’m glad you asked.”

Suddenly Soonyoung was very un-glad he ever did.

“Here, watch.”

Someone shouted in the background. It was an angry shout. Not much later, a person flew across the room. Someone else was before him, heaving, eyes wild. In the crowd, there was a cheer. Wild Eyes punched him too.

More cheers erupted, the people on either side of those people take it upon themselves to punch those guys. Soon, there wasn’t even the shallowest of reasons for the violence. No highschool girl confessing to her crush, it was straight up pinning him down and ravaging his lips.

People hit, spurring others to hit too. People got hit, picking themselves up to hit someone else in return. It was like a chain, yet everything was unravelling at the same time.

To Soonyoung’s absolute dismay, Jihoon had disappeared somewhere in the midst of the chaos.

Tables were being smashed. People swung at him, but he managed to evade those. Chairs broke. Coins covered the floor, a new carpet of shiny silvers and golds. Blood a new pattern on the wallpaper. Soonyoung felt like he was drowning in the sheer madness of it all.

That was when he felt his halo glowing. He knew what that meant, of course, someone in Heaven was trying to talk to him. He crossed his fingers, maybe it was just spam, more angels reading off the list of volunteer activities available. At the very least, hopefully, they didn’t know what he’d been up to. (Soonyoung, omnipotence is a thing? Hello?)

He scampered to the toilet, dodging an array of flying objects. The people were throwing things now, anything they could get their hands on, chips, shoes, parking tickets. He nearly got hit in the head by one woman’s purse but thankfully made it to the bathroom in one piece.

In the mirror, the view frosted over, and when it unfroze, there in the reflection was not Soonyoung anymore but a certain Lee Seokmin.

“Dude!” Seokmin went, no other preface. “What’s going on, something seems weird in your area?”

“Okay, let me explain.” He paused. “Actually, I can’t.”

The chaos spread to the toilet as well, a full grown man's body crashing into bathroom door, snapping it at the hinges.

“What was that?” Seokmin asked.

“A man.”

“But why?”

“I don’t really know.”

More sounds erupted here and there. Some have taken their fight into the bathroom, throwing punches that Soonyoung jumped either too close or too far from the mirror to avoid.

“Hyung, where exactly are you?”

A sink broke, Soonyoung was squatting on the water tank of a toilet. “A casino in Las Vegas.” Soonyoung called over the brawl happening in front of him.

“Why?”

“Look, you can go through all question words but I don’t really know what to tell ya because this is all very strange to me too.”

Seokmin seemed unconvinced but he didn’t know what to say in response to that. Blood splattered, staining a ketchup coloured shape on the image of Seokmin’s shirt. Frankly, Soonyoung was a little amused at how coincidentally the patch fell.

“You’re not in any trouble though?”

Soonyoung assured him no.

But that was a bit of a miscalculation because more and more people were piling into the bathroom, and the entrance was getting more like a bottleneck as the moments tick by, and Soonyoung almost realised this too late when he cussed and bolted for the door*.  
  
* Doorway, really, at this point.

People chased him, he slipped somewhere, tripped somewhere else. And in running from everything, found that he’d ran himself into a corner. Not really, it was more like the railing, but all the same, he was kind of stuck there.

If he jumped, he’d only end up in another swarm of crazed people one floor below. That or the chandelier.

That or the chandelier.

_That or the chandelier!_

In a moment of desperation, often confused with a moment of brilliance, he jumped, hoping he had enough power in his legs to make up for the lack of momentum, and **_crash._**

Now he was stuck in the chandelier.

He wasn’t quite sure how much time passed. But eventually everyone ran out of steam, collapsing on the floor in a heap of limbs and broken things. Which was the exact moment he found Jihoon languidly strolling through the carnage like he was just on his way to tea at his favourite cafe.

“Jihoon.”

And here they were.

“What did you even do?” Soonyoung accused.

“It was fun wasn’t it?” Human expressions were always so fun, but he opted to drop it in lieu of the glare the angel was giving him. He shrugged. “Fine, hold on tight to the column.”

Soonyoung koala hugged it.

With a wave of his hand, the canopies loosened, the whole structure came crashing down. A piece of diamond caught in Soonyoung’s hair. Jihoon threw Soonyoung the rope from earlier, pulling him out of the wreckage.

Soonyoung looked like he was going to say something about the current situation but Jihoon saw it and spoke up first.

“Oh yeah, the police will be here in give or take 30 seconds.”

“What?!”

“It’s okay, I got us an escape car.”

Jihoon led by rope. The two opened the casino double doors and there was a vintage Ford Mustang parked out the front with a shiny coat of black paint.

“Where’d you get- I’m not getting in this car.”

“Your call, angel. You want to confess everything to the cops? They’ll keep you in there for weeks at best, and then what happens to our job with the kid. He’ll see you on the news, probably, as a felon. And I’ll bet your higher ups will be pretty put off, huh?”

Soonyoung made sure to slam the door on his way in.

Jihoon stepped on the gas, but already the wail of police sirens crept up on them from behind.

“Oh dear, Jihoon drive faster.”

Jihoon was entirely too cocky. “What’s the magic word?”

“Just _fucking_ drive, Jihoonie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- salutations! 
> 
> \- okay this was hard to write
> 
> \- tbh, my tone keeps changing lol, i'm sorry  
> \--- anyway, i can't really think of much else to say because i'm kind of drifting off but i hope this was enjoyable
> 
> \- comments and kudos are always appreciated <3


	7. with you by my side (by my side)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- bleh
> 
> \- a short
> 
> \- this will be the last time i'm using hsm lyrics for the chapter titles lol

The paper bag crinkled and crumpled, pinched between Vernon’s fidgety fingers.

After much consideration and nose scrunching (Seungkwan scrunched his nose a lot when he was deep in thought, Vernon noticed) the two finally made their purchase. It was a cute, if fairly peculiar, orange themed set. Orange as in the fruit. The inspiration for its design was a strange combination of ‘moon phases’ and ‘oranges’; resulting in one piece being a full, untouched orange (complete with cartoon leaf stalk) representing the full moon. The second, a slice, half moon. Last but not least, another slice but with all the flesh scraped clean, leaving just the skin, to represent a crescent shape. Weird, but in a refreshing, slightly endearing way.

Vernon had been smitten once he saw it. “Look at these, they’re so interesting.”

Seungkwan blinked, then he sucked in a breath, pursed his lips. “They certainly are… unique.”

There was a sparkle in Vernon’s eyes. “I think this is it.”

At first Seungkwan opened his mouth like he was about to say something but then he stopped, softened, “I guess it is pretty cute.” He conceded.

Nodding at the affirmation, Vernon happily trotted up to the cashier with the hair ties, grinning gaily as he watched the lady take his bill and wrap his purchase in a small paper bag.

‘I sure hope Sofia will like it.’ He thought, and then like a cloudburst, the anxiety came. ‘I sure wish she does.’

“Thank you for your purchase.” The lady said, handing the bag over. Vernon mutely took it, nodding back and making to leave the shop.

Seungkwan met him outside, leaning against a nearby pillar. He waved once he saw his friend exit. And stopped when he noticed that expression of uncertainty painted across his face. Honestly, Seungkwan was a sharp kid. He huffed, snapping two fingers in front of the other guy’s face.

“Don’t go doubting a Boo Guarantee now.” He said lightly, the verbal equivalent of a playful punch to the shoulder.

“But what if it doesn’t go well?”

“If it doesn’t go well it’s because of the way you are now.” Both of them wince.

“What I mean is,” Seungkwan tried again, taking the hand that held the newly bought hair ties, “it’s not about the present at all, is it? This whole thing is about apologising, and I can see it clearly, you’re sorry, it’s been chewing at you all day. I’m sure your sister will see it too. All you have to do is tell her clearly. And you’re not going to do that by doubting and second-guessing your every move.”

There was a beat of silence.

Vernon’s head was a complete mess of thoughts. “Wow. You sound like an old person.”

With a scandalised expression, Seungkwan threw up both his hands. “Oh my God, kindness begets kindness is the universe’s greatest sham.”

But the over-dramatisation made Vernon giggle. “Thanks though. You know, you didn’t have to go so far.”

Seungkwan beamed at him. “What are friends for, am I right?”

For some reason Vernon couldn’t agree as easily as he’d liked.

Thankfully, Seungkwan continued speaking. “You better tell me all about it first thing tomorrow. I’m expecting to hear good results.” He looked at his friend expectantly.

Vernon inhaled. “You betcha.”

And now it was night, and he was here, almost destroying the paper bag in his grip. Deep breath, in and out, _you’re not going to do that by doubting and second-guessing your every move._

Knock, knock.

Knuckles rapping on the door.

“What is it?” Her young girlish voice called from the other side.

In, out.

“It’s me. I wanna talk.”

There was no response. Like she was caught on what to say. Which Vernon took as a good enough sign, it wasn’t being ignored at dinner, and it wasn’t being answered curtly at breakfast. So he grabbed the handle, twisted, and pushed open.

Sofia was sitting on her bed, a number of open books sprawled out before her that she ignored in favour of eyeing her brother curiously.

“Hey, Fifi.”

“What do you want, Sol?” Laced with just a touch of sharpness.

Vernon crouched near her, resting a hand on the pink sheets for balance.

“Listen, I know I did something wrong, and I know you’re angry at me so I want to say I’m sorry.”

She exhaled a sigh. “I was waiting for three hours.”

“I know.”

“It was really hot outside.”

“I know.”

“I thought…” Her bottom lip trembled. “I thought that I didn’t matter.”

Here Vernon reached out to pat her head, finding that somehow the shape of his hand fit well on her skull. Feeling like he was born first, born before Sofia, as it was his earthly duty to protect her. How could she not matter? She was Sofia, his little sister, sweet, and smiley, and slightly spoilt, but still his little sister.

“Of course you do. You’ll always be our little princess.” He spoke as if she were still five, insisting on wearing only dresses, and colouring pictures of Ariel and Flounder into her worksheets.

“That’s embarrassing.” She cringed backwards, but her words had no heat and her mouth curved upwards.

“Oh? How should this lowly servant repent, Your Majesty?” And he had a moment of brilliance, fishing out the hair ties to set them on her head in one swift motion.

“What?” She startled, hands quickly flying to grab at the unidentified objects resting on the crown of her head. They laid innocently in her palms, meeting her puzzled face with a glint reflected from the ceiling light. “What are these?”

“A present. So will you forgive me?”

She giggled then. “Oppa, these are the ugliest hair ties I’ve ever seen!”

Vernon’s jaw dropped, hanging slack to make him look like a fish. “No way, I thought they were cute.” He defended.

Giggles turned to full out laughs. “Nope, nope, nope.” Sofia sang.

“Oh yeah? Then what about these?” Vernon said. It was all the warning she got before he went for her sides with wriggling fingers.

Sofia yelped, her laughs turned to shrieks, as she twisted this way and that trying to avoid the tickles.

Then they both fell off the bed at the exact instant Mama Choi threw open the bedroom door. She blinked at her children. Two pairs of eyes blinked back at her.

“While it’s nice that you two made up.” She started, “do you know what time it is? Don’t be so noisy.”

Vernon and Sofia turn to each other, and in a grand display of synchronisation, “it was him/her!”

“No, it was you both. Come now, let’s all get some sleep.”

Although the statement was aimed at them both, it was particularly aimed at Vernon who was the one not in his room, and she held out the door for him to follow her. Vernon extracted himself from the floor with an unpleased huff. “Fine.”

“Goodnight Sofia.” Mama Choi greeted.

“Goodnight.” Vernon followed suit.

The girl sat up, her legs brushing against something that she checked and found to be the funny looking hair ties her brother had gotten her. And instead of saying ‘goodnight’ back as she’d intended, she waved at them, the door started closing, and yelled, “still think they’re the ugliest.”

Click.

No further debate.

From inside she could hear Vernon’s exasperated scream and her mother asking what all that was about in a very confused tone, but all she could do was laugh, clutch-her-stomach-hard kind of laugh.

 

* * *

 

It was warm.

Soonyoung stirred, feeling a pleasant blanket of warmth draped over himself. The rest of his senses came back slowly, various things snapping into place. A faint waft of oil hung in the air, a hum of noise ever present in the background.

Looking out through the window, he saw the sun hanging low in the sky, a trail of cascading oranges and reds as it sank. He thought it was beautiful.

“You awake, angel?”

“Huh?” Soonyoung blinked blearily, raising his head from the glass to turn, catching sight of Jihoon for the first time since he woke. The devil had a neutral expression, hands on the wheels, eyes on the road. The brilliant setting sun casted pretty lights onto his face, played with the shadows of his features. Soonyoung thought it was breathtaking.

Jihoon spared him a quick glance and a snicker. “Not really I guess.”

“How long was I…?” His voice was hoarse with disuse. He made to stretch his arms but they catch onto something along the way and Soonyoung looked down to find a jacket settled across his body when there hadn’t been one before he fell asleep.

_Oh._

A frown. “I’m not sure, a couple of hours maybe.”

They were on a highway now, Soonyoung had no recollection of them getting on it.

“Are you tired, do you want to switch?” Soonyoung offered.

Jihoon scoffed. “Do you even know how to drive?” He didn’t wait for Soonyoung to respond to that one because they both knew he didn’t. The angel was not really huge on anything ‘modern’, or anything ‘technology’, and ‘modern technology’ just absolutely petrified him. “Besides, it’s fine, I don’t need to sleep.”

“But the human body needs rest.” Soonyoung countered. He wasn’t really sure where he was going with this. If Jihoon agreed, then what were they going to do? Pull up at the side and just stop there for a little bit? Pretty sure that was illegal.

Before he could think things through, Jihoon yanked the steering wheel a sharp left. Tires screeched, Soonyoung screeched, Jihoon was sure he some traffic law was breached.

Soonyoung was going to ask what that was all about, a natural response, but through the corner of his eyes, he saw a ball of fur darting back to the side of the road where it was safe and he understood so the question died in his throat.

Behind them a small choir of unhappy horning sounded. **Beep! Beep! BEEEEEEEP! Beep!**

Jihoon clicked his tongue, hands just ever so slightly shaky from that encounter. Soonyoung leaned out of the window to observe the scene. Rapidly getting smaller in his vision, there was the raccoon that Jihoon swerved around, thankfully unhurt. Soonyoung let out a sigh of relief. **Beep!** Right on their tail, an angry driver repeatedly slamming against his horn button like a game of Bishi Bashi Arcade.

“Man, that bastard’s fucking annoying.” Jihoon muttered, observing the guy through the rear-view mirror.

Soonyoung had to admit the sound was grating on his nerves a bit. Surely, it was high time to **Beep!** ing stop.

Wow, this man was unrelenting.

“I hope you like doughnuts, Jihoonie.”

“Doughnuts?” Jihoon questioned.

Next thing he knew, there was a rather loud **BOOM** , the annoying man’s car flew up several feet into the air and then crashed back down on the ground, in one piece, coming to a complete halt. Soonyoung came back to his seat then, a box of doughnuts in his arms.

Jihoon could ask but what happened was fairly obvious. Soonyoung just crashed a man’s car and stole his doughnuts. To be fair that was eyebrow-raising in its own right, and possibly deserving of a question, but Jihoon chose to smirk, lifting one hand from the wheel to grab a random doughnut.

“Cheers to our holiday?” He raised his pastry. It happened to be a Cappucino Franco.

Soonyoung took out the other doughnut remaining, Chocolate Dreamcake, and giggled as he tapped it against Jihoon’s. “Cheers.”

The doughnuts were too soft so they sink slightly into each other at the pressure and their glaze rub off and smudge at the point of contact. Even Jihoon cracked a smile at how unsuited for toasting the pastries were, and how surely stupid they must have looked.

“We should start heading back shouldn’t we?” Soonyoung spoke, sounding as if he wasn’t quite speaking to Jihoon.

“I guess we should.” Jihoon replied, almost non-committal.

“Hey, Jihoonie,” Soonyoung was facing straight ahead, “I had a good time.”

Jihoon looked ahead too, he couldn’t stop the smile that fought to form on his lips. “And you weren’t too boring.”

Soonyoung picked up the sleeve of the jacket and smacked the devil’s arm with it. “Meanie!”

There was something else he wanted to say. ‘I hope we can do this again.’ But that was going to be impossible. Instead he went, “how are we getting back?”

“Driving.”

What? Soonyoung couldn’t believe his ears. “There’s an entire ocean in between?”

“Come on, if Jesus Christ could walk on water.”

“You’re kidding.” Soonyoung prompted.

Only Jihoon wasn’t. They drive off the road at some point, all the way to the edge of the sea, with Soonyoung still expecting his partner to turn back at any moment, with a haha gotcha.

Then the car came to a stop. As calm as the waters, Jihoon spoke, “Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

And he put his foot on the pedal once more, the car putted forward. As the front wheels reached the water first, they dipped and bobbed with the wave. The rest of the car joined in, and Soonyoung found himself holding firmly onto the armrest, his whole world rocking back and forth, the words spilling from him before he could filter them, “Lord, save me.”

The automobile jetted steadily across the waters.

 

* * *

 

Mark Tuan was leaning close to all his weight on the accelerator. It was very important that he did so, he was running from the police, you see. And as far as running away went, the greatest aim was to not get caught, and stepping on the accelerator was vital to that goal.

A few police patrol cars were coming in close from behind but he knew this area well. Better than them, he’d wager. This was already his fifth time stealing and thus far, well, he had been able to get away with it each time. He took a turn into a more desolated part of the city. Already, he heard with satisfaction the diminishing of police sirens.

He looked at the sack of money fastened in a seatbelt on the front passenger’s seat. They always say it’s the inner beauty that counted and Mark wholeheartedly agreed. Outside, it was ratty and brown. Inside, it was stuffed with fresh green wads straight from the bank. He was tempted to kiss it.

Deep down, he knew stealing was bad. Not so deep down, he knew it was a federal offence, it’s listed in the laws and stuff. But heck it was really easy money, and he seemed to have a knack for getaway driving, so really it was using his talents to earn a profit, if you choose to look at it from that angle.

He could barely pick up the sounds of the siren now. If the police couldn’t stop him, what could? Then he stopped.

In the distance there was a car, just an ordinary looking thing, not unlike his own vehicle. Except that it was driving straight towards the sea. Mark was all for theft but something in his heart screamed about the sight. He could only assume what the people in it were trying to do and, well, losing precious lives always sucked.

And then half the car went into the water, followed by the other half, and the thing continued to power on instead of, oh you know, sink, like any proper car would.

Mark had to do a doubletake. He even triple and quadruple took, but there it was, a car driving on the water.

He drove quickly, through all his shortcuts and confusing roads to wind up back at the bank. He set the money back down on their steps, attached a note to apologise for the inconvenience caused.

Then he drove to the nearby scrapyard, left his car there, went back to his house and hung up his criminal life along with his coat.

 

* * *

 

Jihoon and Soonyoung weren’t sure what they were expecting when they got back but not much was different.

The Choi family breakfast routine was as it had always been, Papa Choi with his newspaper, Mama Choi serving up her cooking on plates for the rest of the family.

Sofia was using a new hair tie, if that stood for anything. And Vernon was looking more chipper than he was three days ago.

They follow Vernon as he greeted his goodbyes and left for school. Both Jihoon and Soonyoung were excited to see the school. Soonyoung because he was Soonyoung and Jihoon because honestly, sometimes kids could be such little shits, he loved it.

The bus ride was familiar, the stretch leading up to the school gate was familiar. Vernon stepped into his classroom, and instead of going to the back, stopped somewhere near the front before a boy neither of the non-mortals had ever seen.

“Hey, SK!”

“Vernon!” The boy called SK greeted. “How did it go?”

But he must have already gathered from the other’s bright expression.

“Dandy. Sofia’s such a twerp though. She kept saying the hair ties were ugly.”

“Oh thank goodness.” He rested a palm on his chest. “At least someone in your family has good fashion sense.”

Vernon’s eye pop open. “Et tu?”

The boy laughed, a happy sound that came from his diaphragm. And despite what Vernon said, he did not sound angry in the least, but rather pleased.

Soonyoung pointed. Jihoon shook his head. They both raised eyebrows at each other.

Well, it certainly was the start of something new.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- ( ･ω･)ﾉ
> 
> \- okay so like this chapter was less on the jokes because i was trying to wrap up some of the dramatic stuff  
> \--- i hope that went okay  
> \--- i always have so much i plan to say at the end but then i forget
> 
> \- oh yeah i will introduce a new relationship in the next chapter, there is an unintentional clue on who they are in this chapter lol, can you guess it?  
> \--- still i am quite excited for it anyway
> 
> \- thanks for all the lovely comments i've gotten on this piece thus far! they motivate me and give me anxiety in equal measure but i'm thankful for every one of them and will work harder to deliver! 
> 
> \- see you next chapter! d(ゝ∀･)


	8. do you like messi?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- *pokemon interlude voice* trainers, if you guessed meanie, you were right!
> 
> \- idk this chapter is a bit of a mess i'm sorry  
> \- we're moving on to a new arc

So apparently, Drama Club meetings were once every week on Wednesdays. 

It was Thursday. 

Yebin kindly told them they would only be able to join in the following week, but they could sit in for the unofficial practice sessions over the weekends while their applications were still being processed. A point she expressed slight regret about, on the administration's behalf. 

Which meant it was yet another Thursday where Vernon finished class and had nothing to do. Only this time, he had a chattering Seungkwan by his side, filling their space with noise. The guy had an uncanny ability to find topics in anything, from personal experiences, to drama episode recounts, to ice cream flavours. 

Today, Seungkwan asked for his friend to show him around town. And of course Vernon agreed.

They were halfway to the main gate when a voice called for their attention. Or rather, called for Vernon’s. 

“Dude, you not gonna watch the match today?” 

The match. Vernon had forgotten all about it. He spun on his heel to see Mingyu standing there, already in his sports getup despite school having just ended, a soccer ball tucked under his arm, and his megawatt smile that showed off his canines.

Then the senior noticed Seungkwan standing confusedly at the side and his own expression slowly started to mimic the boy’s. 

“Ah, I’ll introduce.” 

“Hey Mingyu, what’s taking so long?” 

A low voice interfered, followed by a poker-faced Jeon Wonwoo striding calmly from around the corner. 

He looked from Mingyu, to Vernon, to Seungkwan, and with no change in his expression, he went, “huh?”

Vernon flailed his hand with a sigh. “I’ll introduce.”

“Yes, please.” Said Soonyoung, floating several metres above them.

There they were, four boys standing in a Circle of Introduction. Four boys and two otherworldly beings. Soonyoung and Jihoon slotting themselves on each side of Vernon, right and left, paying close attention in order to figure out the identity of the strange new boy who was suddenly so close to the Chosen One.

“Okay, well, hyungs, this is Seungkwan, he just transferred to my class a few days ago.” Seungkwan gave a little bow. “And Seungkwan, Wonwoo sunbaenim, and Mingyu,” Vernon gestured respectively, Mingyu protested. “They’re my seniors. Mingyu’s 2nd year and Wonwoo’s 3rd.”

“Nice to meet you both, Wonwoo sunbaenim, Mingyu sunbaenim, I’m Boo Seungkwan. I just transferred here from Jeju.” Seungkwan, ever sociable, greeted them again.

Mingyu mock sniffled. “Please don’t follow Vernon’s bad influence.” He shot Vernon the stink eye. “Name’s Kim Mingyu. I’m on the soccer team.” Here, he presented the ball like it was evidence. “Midfielder.” He flashed another grin.

“Jeon Wonwoo.” Wonwoo nodded, a small quirk to the lips that could* pass as a smile.

* ‘Could’ with a strong emphasis, and a very dragged out uuuu sound in the middle.

“Anyway, you not coming to the field today?” Mingyu directed this to Vernon. The younger male’s hesitance was enough of an answer. “Wow, a few days and y’all already out on a date. Smooth.”

“They’re going on a what?!” Soonyoung squawked, turning frantically to look at Jihoon.

“Young love.” Wonwoo said, delivery deadpan, and Mingyu chuckled.

“I believe he said it was a date.” Jihoon shrugged.

“Can it guys, I was just going to show Kwannie the mall and stuff.” Vernon defended.

Soonyoung turned to Vernon with the express purpose of whipping back around to his partner, shocked expression doubly shocked-looking, if that were possible. “He called him what?!”

“Hmm…” went Wonwoo, in that deliberately pondering way. “I guess that’s what the kids call it these days.” Mingyu laughed at that too.

“He called him Kwannie.” Jihoon didn’t want to shrug again, it wouldn’t be cool, so he opted for a slight tilt of the head in the vague direction of Vernon.

“You’re not that much older than us!” Vernon exclaimed.

“It’s too bad, too sad, I won’t have anyone to cheer for me in today’s match.”

“No?” Seungkwan startled, finally finding a voice in the conversation. “Isn’t Wonwoo sunbaenim…?”

“Haha,” Vernon cracked up beside him. “No way! Wonwoo hyung exclusively cheers for the team Mingyu hyung’s  _ not _ on.”

Mingyu let out a long suffering sigh, further bolstering the statement.

Meanwhile, Wonwoo had two thumbs up, a shit-eating grin on his face, “someone’s gotta keep his ego in check.” He mentioned as if it were only natural.

Seungkwan raised a sympathetic eyebrow at his classmate. “I suppose the mall could wait…”

For the most part unwillingly, Vernon let out a defeated sigh, which was enough for Mingyu to start tugging at the transfer student’s sleeves, pretty much dragging him to the field. “You won’t be disappointed. A senior is coming today and he agreed to play a match, it’ll be fun!”

Lagging behind, the other two followed after their companions. Wonwoo did a quick assessment of his younger friend and then, making sure they were out of earshot, he leaned in to whisper, “you are so whipped.”

Vernon was quick to scoff. “Pot calling the kettle black, hyung.”

But Wonwoo simply straightened and carried on.

Still standing where he had been, slightly hovering, Soonyoung looked like he was about to burst. “That tall one said he was what now?!”

Jihoon who had already shrugged and did the slight head tilt thing, was running out of ideas for cool gestures, stuffing his hands into his Hell-issued pinstripe trousers. “Whipped, he said.”

“My son is not dating someone he met three days ago.” Soonyoung declared.

“Your son could do with a little more action than going around shopping like a pansy.” Jihoon retaliated.

The two stared each other down.

“You’re on.”

The four boys split up accordingly at the field, Mingyu off to where the other players had gathered on the grass, the rest heading to the spectator benches. The trio find a space for them in the midst of the various pockets of cheering girls, seating themselves Wonwoo, then Seungkwan, then Vernon.

“Who’s playing who today?” Vernon asked conversationally. 

Wonwoo hummed, cocking his head to the side, the gears in his head starting to spin. “I think it’s 2nd years vs 3rds? Jinwoo said he would be playing.” 

The name triggered a rush of giggling from their left. 

“Mingyu hyung said something about a senior?” Seungkwan piped in.

“Huh? Oh yeah, Jonghyun hyung is coming back today.”

An explosion of squeals from the right.

“Kim ‘War Turtle’ Jonghyun?” Vernon leaned over Seungkwan to gape, excited. “I heard stories, man. Which side will he be on?”

“War Turtle?” Seungkwan murmured. There was uncertainty to his tone, but it was the wrong kind of uncertainty. Not so much a question about how such a funny name could come to be but more along the lines of trying to remember if he’d heard it somewhere before.

Wonwoo turned to him with a raised eyebrow. He didn’t have time to ponder too long though because then there was a lot of movement on the field, a telltale sign that the match was about to begin. He watched the players line up, noting that he’d been correct to say it was between the 2nds and 3rds, as he was able to pick out Mingyu (solely because of how tall he was) in line with people he recognised as underclassmen. Across from them, there was Jinwoo and a handful of others he knew were in his class or cohort.

And then, of course, the star of the show, Kim Jonghyun, doing his stretches amongst the second years, looking obviously out of place, wearing an outfit that was different, an expression that was just not the same, and an air that he brought from some place that was not here.

Mingyu gulped looking at his senior.

“Hey, hyung, it’s been awhile.” He greeted with a shy smile. He’d barely known the elder since he’d just came in as a first year when Jonghyun was almost ready to graduate. Although they did laugh and talk on a few occasions, and he saw first-hand the winning shot that led to the Great Victory Shellebration of ‘09.

“Mingyu, my man, you’ve grown taller!” Jonghyun remarked, a casual grin, an affectionate knuckle to the head.

And it was strange how foreign he seemed already.

Some of the third years were whining about Jonghyun not being on their team but the older boy was flippant about it, citing that he shouldn’t let the poor juniors be bullied. The second year’s win was almost assured at this point. It was more likely the third years being tormented. But Wonwoo resolutely stood against Mingyu’s side.

A notion that made Seungkwan laugh behind his hand as he turned to Vernon.

“What’s their deal?” He asked in a whisper.

Vernon knew what his friend was talking about without even looking. “Beats me. They’ve been like that since I’ve known them. Friends, and not friends, but even more friends because of that.” He paused. “Does that make sense?”

“Hmmm…” Seungkwan hummed, “yeah somehow. That’s weird.”

“I think,” and here, Vernon leaned closer because the next thing he was going to say was going to be conspiratorial, his lips almost brushing the shell of Seungkwan’s ear, “I think Wonwoo hyung has a crush.”

Seungkwan’s eyes widen, interest sparked. “Oh my.” Is all he could think to say. Vernon snickered at his reaction. “But what about Mingyu hyung?”

They both turn at the same time to watch the boy in question run up and down the field, chasing after the black and white ball, all his focus on the game.

“I don’t know.” Vernon got out. “I can’t completely tell. What do you think?”

“I don’t think I know them well enough.” Seungkwan confessed. “Mingyu hyung seems to value Wonwoo hyung enough though.” 

Vernon nodded at the input. Value, that was an interesting way of putting it. He stole a quick glance at Wonwoo, who had his eyes trained on the panting Mingyu. They were students so the matches were two sets of 25 instead of the full 45 minutes, and there was only five minutes left before the second half came to a close. The score was sitting at 2-1 in favour of the second years. As long as they kept this up, the game was theirs for sure.

To nobody’s surprise, the five minutes tick down, there was no other goal made in that time, and the second years are running all around the field, shouting with renewed vigour despite having just emerged all sweaty and exhausted from a game.

Staying in character, Wonwoo groaned with disdain, but Vernon caught the slip of a smile in there, and his suspicions reaffirm.

“We should congratulate him!” Seungkwan said, already standing up. The other two follow the enthusiastic boy. He might not know much about sports but he was certainly knowledgeable in celebrations and good times. They go down the steps two by two, until Vernon announced at the end that he’d needed to use the bathroom.

“What timing.” Seungkwan groaned.

“Catch up quickly.” Wonwoo told him, and he and Seungkwan continued on their way to the field.

Vernon couldn’t help the amused sigh as he watched the sight, his feet turning a few degrees off from them to head for the bathroom.

But somebody was suddenly standing in front of him, unnaturally close. Whoever he was, he was beautiful, one of the prettiest sights of human Vernon had ever seen. At the same time, it seemed like a beauty that spelled inescapable danger.

“Are you Vernon Choi?” The stranger asked. His voice was as beautiful as his face, and his tone semi-intimidating in a way that made Vernon want to deny being Vernon with all his being.

Except he nodded mutely. Because he couldn’t lie to such a beautiful person, but nor could he answer.

The stranger smiled. It was a pleasant smile, all warm milk and honey. “That’s great.” He said, “will you follow me for a moment?”

It really wasn’t a demand but Vernon found himself trailing after the guy anyway.

He didn’t know where he was being taken. The stranger walked with assurance of where he was going, like he knew the place. He led him around the school, all the way to the blocks on the extreme opposite of the field. There, there was a fairly small car park sandwiched between the back of the block and the school’s Better The Environment trees, the canopy of leaves casting a perpetual shade around the area.

Vernon followed the beautiful boy into the shadows. There were two other people there, one posed leaning against a motorbike, wearing what appeared to be a leather jacket adorned with studs all around. He was looking down, a shadow blocking his eyes, a stick poking out from his lips. Along the side of the bike that Vernon could see, ‘Hell’s Angel’ painted in the most grafitti font imaginable.

A little ways off him, a figure that was clearly female stood by the trees. She had a good figure, further emphasised by her tight fitting clothes. Her long hair tumbled down half her back. She was equally shrouded by shadows, and the leaves kept her mysterious.

“I’ve brought him.” Beautiful boy announced.

The other two look at the new company, raising their heads slowly and deliberately. Vernon gulped. They both had nice eyes, but Hell’s Angel’s in particular seemed to be boring into him.

“Hello, Vernon.” The girl greeted, her voice impassive.

Beautiful boy walked up to the wall to lean against it, effectively trapping Vernon in the process. He smiled, no his smiles never quite left his face, his eyes twinkled a little with whatever little light there was, then he inhaled and said,

“We’re **The Gang.** ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- annyeong! (=｀ω´=)
> 
> \- honestly i was not expecting to add meanie into this fic at all but evidently, it is growing into something beyond my control   
> \--- i guess they say to keep plans loose because they always get f**ked
> 
> \- thank you for putting up with my junk all the time, i appreciate every single one of y'all who leave comments and kudos
> 
> \- i don't have much to say for this, i hope you enjoyed! ( ᐛ )و


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